Case Studies
The Case Studies Series highlights Dr. Javahery’s hands-on experience as a practicing surgeon over the last 10 years and his most extraordinary cases, from patient diagnosis and treatment to their recovery and current condition.
Case Study Series: Giant Aneurysm
Written by Dr. Javahery on June 28, 2018
This patient was an 11-year-old who presented with sudden onset of left-sided weakness. Her imaging showed a lesion on the right side of her brain with associated right-sided infarcts. Her evaluation included an MRI and then an angiogram. The angiogram revealed a giant fusiform aneurysm of the middle cerebral artery (MCA).
A giant aneurysm is one that is over 2.5 cm in size. Giant fusiform aneurysms are a rare cerebrovascular pathology, especially in the pediatric population. They represent only approximately 5% of aneurysms.
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Case Studies Series: Cerebellar AVM
Written by Dr. Javahery on January 17, 2018
This child was 10 years old when he initially presented to the hospital. He was with his grandmother when he began complaining of a headache, after which he lost consciousness. His grandmother called the paramedics but the sheriff got to the house first. The sheriff found the child not only unresponsive but also not breathing. According to the sheriff, he was purple. He initiated CPR and was able to get his pulse back. The sheriff saved him!
He was brought into the emergency room and was intubated. He had a CT scan of the brain that showed an intracranial hemorrhage. During the time in the ER, he arrested again and was brought back.
The ER called me after the CT scan on the way up to the Pediatric ICU.
I met him and his family in the ICU.
His CT head showed blood in the cerebellum with compression of the brain stem. There was also some hydrocephalus. His CT angiogram showed an associated arteriovenous malformation that had caused the hemorrhage.
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Case Studies Series: Lumbar Instability after Prior Surgery
Written by Dr. Javahery on October 17, 2017
This patient was a 32-year-old with a history of multiple prior back surgeries. I met her in early 2017 when she presented with severe lower back pain and bilateral leg pain. Her pain was basically preventing her from living a normal life. Walking any distance caused a rapid increase in her pain. Her leg pain went down the back of both legs and resulted in numbness in the feet.
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Case Study Series: Odontoid Fracture
Written by Dr. Javahery on August 1, 2017
This patient is a 19 year-old young woman who was involved in a high-speed motor vehicle crash. She suffered multiple fractures, including her leg and and her cervical spine (neck).
Fortunately, the fractures of her neck did not result in any neurological injury. The fracture pattern, however, was complex.
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Case Study Series: Mature Teratoma Cerebellopontine Angle
Written by Dr. Javahery on May 18, 2017
This case involves a previously normal child who, at 15 months old, presented with nystagmus, or abnormal eye movements. Her neurologist recommended she have an MRI, and the results showed large tumor in the posterior fossa compressing her brain stem.
This was one of the largest tumors I have ever seen. We initially did a biopsy since the lesion was so large and she was so young to see if there was a role for chemotherapy prior to surgery.
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Case Study Series: Clival Chordoma
Written by Dr. Javahery on May 4, 2018
This child was 9 years old when I first met her. She presented with progressive weakness on the left side, a weak voice, swallowing difficulties and impaired balance. Her imaging showed a lesion (tumor) in the posterior fossa compressing the brain stem.
Our initial impression was that this tumor was most consistent with a clival chordoma. We discussed the treatment options, and my plan was for a multi-staged approach for the resection of the lesion. I chose this treatment because I did not think it was possible to safely resect the entire lesion via a single surgery.
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Case Studies Series: Multiple Hemangiomas
Written by Dr. Javahery on January 8, 2018
This child was 3 months old when she presented to the emergency room with evidence of increased pressure inside of her head. She had rapid head growth and the soft spot at the top of her head (anterior fontanelle) was tense. Interestingly, she had multiple skin lesions that were consistent with cutaneous hemangiomas.
Based on her clinical condition, she underwent a CT scan of the brain, followed by an MRI of the brain. We could not do a contrast MRI since she was allergic to the contrast material for the MRI but we did a contrast CT and MRI without contrast. For a lot of tumors, it’s easier to see the tumors with the contrast dye but we had to proceed without it.
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Case Studies Series: Cervical Spine Fracture
Written by Dr. Javahery on September 7, 2017
This patient was the first case I ever did after completing my training. He was a 14-year-old high-school student on the local wrestling team. He was horsing around with a friend and the friend picked him up and dropped him on his head.
He was instantly unable to move his arms or legs.
He was brought in by the paramedics to the emergency room as a complete C4 quadriplegic. Complete means that he had no function (either motor or sensory) below the level of injury and being at the C4 level meant he had no muscle control in his arms or legs. He could only breathe spontaneously and move the muscles of his face and head.
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Case Study Series: Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH)
Written by Dr. Javahery on July 4, 2017
This patient was a 48-year-old woman who presented with a sudden transient loss of consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she had a severe headache. Fortunately, she was neurologically intact.
Her CT scan showed that she had an extensive subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). A SAH is bleeding inside the head into the subarachnoid space where cerebrospinal fluid circulates. This type of SAH is usually related to a cerebral aneurysm.
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Case Study Series: Brain Stem Cavernoma
Written by Dr. Javahery on
Another interesting case is this 18-month old child who presented with recurrent hemorrhages related to a cavernous malformation of her brain stem. Her parents discovered something was wrong when they noticed their child experiencing weakness on the left side of her body. They brought her into the emergency room for further evaluation.
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Case Study Series: Langerhans Cell Sarcoma
Written by Dr. Javahery on February 23, 2018
One of the most amazing patients I’ve treated was an incredibly brave 7-year old girl, who came in to the emergency room with her parents having extreme difficulties walking.
In addition to feeling numb in both of her legs, she had been experiencing chest pains at night for the past month. In search of answers, we ran emergency imaging and found a lesion on her T6 vertebrae with severe spinal cord compression.
This lesion was a cancerous form of Langerhans Cell Sarcoma. This is an incredibly rare disease with only 50 cases of it ever reported worldwide. Without quick treatment, this condition would leave this young girl paralyzed for the rest of her life.
The shaded area of the spine represents the lesion of the T6
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Case Studies Series: Cervical Foraminotomy
Written by Dr. Javahery on October 23, 2017
This patient was a 59-year-old when I initially met him. He presented with a 6-month history of left arm pain extending into the shoulder and upper arm. The pain did occasionally go down to his forearm. He had numbness around the left shoulder and mild weakness of the deltoid and biceps muscles. He had seen another spine surgeon who had recommended doing an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion between cervical 4 and 5 as well as between cervical 5 and 6 (ACDF of C4/5 and C5/6). He then saw me for a second opinion.
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Case Studies Series: Brain Stem Tumor
Written by Dr. Javahery on August 15, 2017
This child is a 6 year-old who presented with progressive right-sided weakness. The weakness was initially subtle with some dragging of the right foot but it progressed to the point that he was falling and eventually could not walk
The weakness affected his face, arm, and leg. He was sent for an MRI and based on the results of the MRI, sent to me for an evaluation.
The MRI, unfortunately, showed a large tumor in the left side of his brain stem. The tumor extended from the midbrain (superiorly) to the pons (inferiorly).
Brain stem tumors in this age group can run the spectrum from very benign tumors to very malignant tumors. Some of these malignant brain stem tumors are so aggressive that they are invariably fatal.
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Case Study Series: Metastatic Tumor of the Spine
Written by Dr. Javahery on June 7, 2017
This patient was a 66 year-old women at the time of her initial presentation with Stage IV breast cancer and a new metastatic lesion in the 2nd lumbar vertebrae (L2).
She presented with new onset back pain about three months before I met her. She had radiation therapy for the lesion in L2 per the recommendation of her oncologist and another spine surgeon.
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Case Study Series: Degenerative Scoliosis and Spondylolisthesis
Written by Dr. Javahery on April 10, 2017
This patient is a 66 year-old gentleman who previously had an L5-S1 instrumented fusion in 2007 (by me) for severe back pain and bilateral lower extremity pain. This pain was caused by an isthmic spondylolisthesis, a spinal condition in which one vertebra slips forward over the vertebra below, at L5/S1.
His symptoms were resolved after surgery but then in 2016 he developed recurrent back pain, leg pain, and foot numbness. His imaging showed that he had progressive spondylosis (degenerative changes) of the lumbar spine and adjacent level disease (from the prior fusion). He had significant spondylolisthesis at L4/5 and scoliosis in the lumbar spine.